A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2019
A sensory-friendly Christmas
IN BRIEF
Astoria man pleads guilty to sexual
violence, sentenced to six months in jail
An Astoria man was sentenced Wednesday to six
months in jail and fi ve years of supervised probation for
sexual violence.
Caleb Jeffrey Hale, 20, pleaded guilty to sodomy in
the third degree and strangulation.
If Hale’s probation is revoked he will serve fi ve years
in prison.
According to the prosecution, Hale forced a girl to
perform oral sex on him in 2017 when he was 18 years
old and she was 14 years old.
Hale’s charges and sentence were reduced because of
his guilty plea.
“If I believed for one second that you had no chance
at change, I would not have gone along with this agree-
ment,” Judge Dawn McIntosh said during sentencing.
County receives $19.6 million
from Clatsop State Forest
Clatsop County received $19.6 million in revenue
from forestry last fi scal year, according to the Oregon
Department of Forestry report.
Clatsop and Tillamook state forests are two of the
largest forests managed by the state. Tillamook County
and their local taxing districts received $24.7 million in
revenue.
Revenue also supports local service providers, includ-
ing the Clatsop Care Health District, Clatsop Commu-
nity College, Jewell School District, Rural Law Enforce-
ment District and the Port of Astoria.
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Charlotte Devos tells Santa Claus what is on her Christmas list at the eighth annual Autism Society of Oregon sensory-friendly
Christmas Party on Monday night in Warrenton. Children and families gathered together to celebrate the Christmas season in
a calmer, less-stimulating atmosphere. Attendees enjoyed pizza and crafts when not hanging out with Santa.
Sen. Wyden comes to Astoria on Jan. 2
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden will hold a town hall at 1 p.m.
on Jan. 2 at Clatsop Community College’s Performing
Arts Center in Astoria.
Wyden, who promised to visit each of Oregon’s 36
counties once a year, has held 956 town halls since being
elected to the Senate in 1996.
“I’m eager to begin 2020 in true ‘Oregon Way’ fash-
ion – with eight open-to-all town halls that provide
everybody the opportunity to share their ideas, questions
and priorities directly with me,” the Oregon Democrat
said in a news release. “These town halls are hallmarks
of democracy, and I look forward very much to hearing
from Oregonians all over our state.”
— The Astorian
Pacifi c Northwest
volcano forecast
to erupt within
next four years
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
Dec. 18, 2019
BERRY, Patti Jean, 82,
of Cannon Beach, died in
Seaside. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
NIVERSON,
Betty
Lou, 73, of Westport, for-
merly of Hammond, died
in Westport. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
Dec. 17, 2019
GRIFFEY, Gail, 72,
of Astoria, died in Asto-
ria. Hughes-Ransom Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
BIRTH
Dec. 3, 2019
VAN VELSOR, Ciara, and WOODCOCK, Bren-
dan, of Astoria, a boy, Brandt Van Woodcock, born in
Portland. Older brother is Reginald (Reggie) Wood-
cock. Grandparents are Bill Van Velsor and Ava Van
Velsor, of Neskowin, and Jerry Woodcock and Cathy
Woodcock, of Portland.
ON THE RECORD
Sex abuse
• Joshua Blaze Best,
32, was indicted Thurs-
day on two counts of sod-
omy in the fi rst degree
and two counts of sexual
abuse in the fi rst degree.
Assault
• Justin Robert Puck-
ett, 40, of Warrenton,
was arrested Thursday on
N.E. Skipanon Drive in
Warrenton for assault in
the fourth degree, harass-
ment and strangulation.
Theft
• Nova Amber Emo,
25, of Astoria, was
indicted Friday on theft
in the fi rst degree, forg-
ery in the fi rst degree,
identity theft and posses-
sion of forged instrument
in the fi rst degree.
Disorderly conduct
• Levi Trent Smith, 32,
was arrested Wednesday
in the Warrenton High-
lands shopping center
parking lot for disorderly
conduct in the second
degree, resisting arrest
and criminal mischief in
the third degree.
Criminal trespass
• Jacob Martin Kitz-
man, 28, was arrested
Wednesday in the Fred
Meyer parking lot in War-
renton for criminal tres-
pass in the second degree.
DUII
• Kevin Sean Maak-
estad, 40, was charged
Wednesday with driv-
ing under the infl uence of
intoxicants after driving
his vehicle into a ditch
near Walluski Loop and
Youngs River Road in
Astoria. His blood alco-
hol content was 0.27%.
PUBLIC MEETING
MONDAY
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
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Scientists are forecast-
ing that the Pacifi c North-
west’s most active volcano
will erupt sometime between
2020 and 2024.
The volcano isn’t one
you’ll see driving along
the Cascade Range, instead
you’d have to look 1.5 miles
deep in the ocean to fi nd it.
It’s called the Axial Sea-
mount and it’s located about
300 miles due west of Asto-
ria at the edge of the Juan
de Fuca plate. If the volcano
were on land, it would be
one of the taller mountains in
Oregon’s Coast Range.
Oregon State Universi-
ty’s Bill Chadwick made the
eruption forecast at a scien-
tifi c meeting this month. His
forecast is based on measure-
ments taken on the seafl oor
around the seamount.
“One of the ways that vol-
canoes are monitored around
the world is to look for
changes in their shape, like if
the ground is being uplifted
or subsiding,” Chadwick
said. “What you’re inter-
ested in is (if) magma mov-
ing in or moving out or is it
just slumbering?”
Axial Seamount has
changed quite a bit over the
last decades, with the surface
gradually rising between
eruptions, then suddenly
The Astorian
In observance of Christ-
mas Day on Wednesday,
all federal and state offi ces
are closed. Clatsop County
offi ces close at noon
Tuesday, and are closed
Wednesday.
For city offi ces and ser-
vices: Astoria closes at
noon Tuesday, and is closed
Wednesday; Cannon Beach
is closed Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday; Warren-
ton and Gearhart are closed
Tuesday and Wednesday;
and Seaside is closed on
Wednesday only.
The Port of Asto-
ria administrative offi ces
are closed Tuesday and
Wednesday.
All U.S. post offi ces
are closed Wednesday, and
there is no mail delivery.
Astoria, Jewell, Knappa,
Warrenton/Hammond and
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University of Washington
A bottom pressure/tilt instrument is used to measure change
in the ocean fl oor around the Axial Seamount.
activity gives indications of
what’s happening inside the
volcano.
“Immediately after an
eruption, there are very
few earthquakes and then
the number of earthquakes
steadily increases as the vol-
cano infl ates,” he said. “So
after the eruption in 2015,
the number of earthquakes
that we recorded went down
to just a handful and it’s now
up to maybe 50 a day.”
Wilcock says he believe
that Bill Chadwick’s forecast
is in the right ballpark.
“My personal view is it’s
probably more likely in 2022
to 2024. But I think there’s
some uncertainty,” he said.
Unlike the eruption of
a land-based volcano, like
Mount St. Helens, the erup-
tion of the Axial Seamount
won’t cause any problems
for humans.
“For the size of erup-
tions we’ve seen in the last
20 years … if you were on
top of it on a boat, you would
never know it,” Oregon
State’s Chadwick said.
But the forecast eruption
does provide a unique oppor-
tunity scientifi cally.
“There’s a lot of inter-
est in trying to set up exper-
iments, to basically observe
more of (the volcanic pro-
cesses) as it’s happening,”
Wilcock said.
Chadwick says the Axial
Seamount is a relatively
simple volcano in terms of
where it occurs and how it
behaves. And being able to
study the volcano at such
close range as it erupts could
provide insight to the behav-
ior and forecasting of volca-
noes on land.
“I think in that way we
have an opportunity to under-
stand a relatively simple sys-
tem. And hopefully the les-
sons we learn there would
have applications to forecast-
ing eruptions and other more
complicated settings.”
Offi ces around region to close for Christmas
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dropping back down.
“It’s erupted three times
in the last 21 years. That’s
more than Mount St. Hel-
ens and any of the volcanoes
in our neighborhood. So it’s
gotten a lot of our attention
and we’re trying to learn as
much from it as we can,” he
said.
An expansive seafl oor
monitoring network installed
in 2014 has allowed Chad-
wick to monitor Axial Sea-
mount in real time. Over the
past few years, he’s watched
the volcano slowly grow.
“We’re using that repeated
pattern of infl ation and defl a-
tion to try to anticipate when
the next eruption might be,”
he said.
Chadwick says making
such a straightforward and
public forecast is its own
kind of experiment.
“We’re just kind of doing
this forecasting … to see if it
works. In my mind it’s more
honest and more of a test to
see if it’s really useful to do
it before something happens,
because it’s easy to kind of
fool yourself in hindsight or
spin it a certain way,” he said.
Other scientists in the
Pacifi c Northwest are also
monitoring the seamount for
signals of eruption.
University of Washing-
ton’s William Wilcock stud-
ies earthquakes at Axial
Seamount. The seismic
Sponsored by
Bayshore
Animal Hospital
CLATSOP COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER
1315 SE 19th St., Warrenton • 861- PETS
www.dogsncats.org
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
Seaside (including Can-
non Beach and Gearhart)
school district schools, and
Clatsop Community Col-
lege, are closed for winter
break.
The Astoria Library and
Seaside Library are closed
Wednesday; the Warrenton
Library is closed Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Garbage
collection
through Recology West-
ern Oregon is one day late
for customers whose nor-
mal service day is Wednes-
day, Thursday or Friday;
the Astoria Transfer Station
closes at 2 p.m. Tuesday
and is closed Wednesday.
City of Warrenton gar-
bage collection customers
whose normal service day
is Wednesday will have
their garbage picked up on
Thursday.
The Sunset Pool in
Seaside and the Astoria
Aquatic Center are closed
Wednesday.
The Clatsop County
Heritage Museum, Ore-
gon Film Museum, Fla-
vel House and Carriage
House are closed Tues-
day and Wednesday. The
Uppertown
Firefi ghters’
Museum is closed for the
winter.
Lil’ Sprouts is closed
Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday. Fort Clatsop
closes at 2 p.m. Tuesday,
and is closed Wednesday.
The Columbia River Mar-
itime Museum is closed
Wednesday. The Seaside
Museum is closed Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Sunset Empire Trans-
portation (“The Bus”) is
not running on Wednesday.
The Astorian offi ces are
closed Wednesday .
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